Home, sweet home
by owlofgrantham
Summary: Robert is not happy about a certain telegram. Cora isn't either. But you have to make the best of everything life throws at you. Or your relatives across the pond. One-shot for 4.07. Spoiler-Warning for Series 4!


_A/N: See, I promised, I would write something :) It's just a little something, set after the telegram arrived, which summoned Robert to America. Sorry for any mistakes in there. Enjoy x_

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_"I believe we've made the decision."_

He stated it. It was definite. He would be going to America, to answer her mother's call and to help her brother out of his fix. Although 'going' wasn't really the right expression. 'Hurrying' more like. Bates had started to pack his things, the house was already in an uproar and word had been sent to his mother. She would be there in an hour or so to see him off.

He didn't want to go, it was clear as day and even without his little outburst a few minutes ago, Cora would have seen it. In the way, he pressed his lips together, in the way he frowned and in his eyes, his beautiful eyes, with which he was now looking at her rather sadly.

He was doing this for her. And it only served to make her love him even more than she already did. If this was actually possible.

He sighed as he looked at the telegram in his hands again.

"Why? Why me? Why now?" He muttered under his breath.

"Robert?" Cora interrupted his musings.

"Yes?" He snapped out of his reverie.

"Would you be so kind and put my tray somewhere over there?"

"What?" He asked, being a little confused by her request, as she held out her breakfast tray to him.

"Please? I'm not hungry anymore and I'd like it off the bed," she smiled at him.

"Alright," he murmured, crammed the telegram into his pocket, took the tray out of her hands and went to put it on her dressing table.

"Has Bates finished packing your things yet?" Cora asked while she hurriedly started to get rid of her nightgown.

She was in luck because he didn't turn around to look at her when he answered.

"No, not yet. That's going to take a while. We'll take the 10 o'clock. Mama will be here in an hour or so I understand, and I wanted to change before she arrives. So I'm afraid I'll have to dress myself today. But well, I think I can manage getting myself into my travel suit. Since I have managed successfully to put this vast tray on this petit bit of furniture here, I'm sure I can do anything," he announced, smiling, being quite pleased with himself.

His smile froze though when he finally turned around to look at his wife.

"Cora? What...," Robert started and trailed off for his wife had apparently gotten rid of her garments and was now sitting naked in their bed. Well, he assumed she was naked. Her lower half was hidden beneath the duvet.

"Come here, Robert," she invited him.

"Cora, I... I don't think...," he stammered, but at the same time he moved closer to the bed and grabbed the bedpost at the end of her side of the bed, needing to hold on to something solid while he felt his knees grow weak as he couldn't help but stare at her long, exposed neck and her bare chest.

"There's still time, isn't there?" Cora encouraged him. She knew his mouth was going to say 'no' in a few seconds but his eyes were already telling her different things. Things that aroused her more than she would have thought a few moments ago. She could feel them roaming over her naked skin, appreciating what they were seeing. So much so, that they had already darkened a few shades. Suddenly Cora felt that she actually needed to be with him one more time before he went, otherwise, she feared, she wouldn't be able to let him go. The predicament of her brother was totally forgotten by now.

"No," Robert whispered, "I don't think there is." But his body clearly thought otherwise. His breathing had gotten heavier, he couldn't for the life of him avert his eyes from her naked form lying casually there in front of him and he felt a rather familiar tightening in his trousers.

"Robert, please?" She asked. "I don't know when you'll be back home again and I'd very much like to be with you one more time before you go. Please, I'm sure there's a little time left? But if you'd rather want to waste it hugging that bedpost instead of me, well, then... I have to find other means, I guess..." she trailed off while Robert could see her legs spreading beneath the covers and her hand slowly creeping underneath it.

"Good Lord, Cora...," he coughed more than he spoke but at the same time Robert finally surrendered himself to the thought of being with his wife, here and now, although his mind kept telling him that there was virtually no time for this.

"God, I hope I've got the head for this now," he breathed while he practically ripped off his jacket and almost managed to knot his fingers together while opening the buttons of his waistcoat.

"Robert," Cora breathed equally heavily now, "you don't need your head for this, darling. Just all the other important things...," she had sat up and started to unfasten his trousers, "God, why are you wearing all these layers in this ungodly hour of the morning..."

"Whoa, Cora, stop, stop, stop," he panted as she pulled him on top of her by his now open trousers with more force than Robert had anticipated. "I'm not as young as I once was." With the covers still between them, he lowered her head unto the pillow and caressed her cheek.

"And if we are going to do this now, I'd like to savour every bit of it. In the short time that we do have. And I shall start with your unbelievably nice lips..." and with this he kissed her. Slowly at first, because in spite of the lack of time, he wasn't the kind of man to rush things like that. But soon enough it got more and more intense, especially after Cora had started to nibble hungrily at his lower lip. That's what 30 plus years of marriage did to you. Cora knew intimately how to drive her husband wild with desire and this morning she seemed set to put all of that knowledge to good use.

With his squirming wife beneath him, who had started to moan longingly as he had moved his attentions towards her neck and a little clock ticking away in the back of his head, Robert, against his usual disposition, became impatient. In almost one single motion he managed to get rid of his shirt and to remove the covers which where still between them.

There she was, his beautiful wife, in all her glory. Robert stopped his movements to let the gorgeous sight sink in.

"Robert? What is it? Robert, please don't make me beg," she pleaded.

Slowly again he let his hands wander across her body until he reached her thighs and heard her moan again.

"Robert, please..."

He gave in. He wasn't able to do anything else anyway. Even after all these years she had this marvelous ability to drive him crazy. When he took his hands away to finally remove his trousers, Cora sat up and he suddenly felt her hand inside them, her fingers closing around him, stroking firmly.

"No, darling," she whispered urgently through his hissing, "leave them on. I can't wait any second longer."

By now, he didn't need telling twice.

"Alright, I give up, you win," Robert breathed heavily as he lowered her again unto the bed and himself between her legs. As her arms encircled his neck and her hands started to make a mess of his hair, he eased inside her. Robert closed his eyes, the telegram, the bossy words of his mother-in-law, America, Harold's stupidity - everything was forgotten at that glorious moment. This was home, this was where he belonged.

When he opened his eyes again, the pleasure of their union was painted all over Cora's face. Her closed eyes and her half-opened lips drew him to her with a force he could not resist and he kissed her passionately and quickened his pace. The way she kissed him back without opening her eyes and the way she hold on to his hair told him that his wife was close. Very close.

When her body suddenly arched into his and he felt her pulsing around him and heard her crying out his name, he buried his face in her neck and groaned deeply from somewhere within his chest for there was no way he would be able to delay his own release any longer today.

Cora felt as if her insides had exploded in the most delightful way possible. His groan had so deliciously vibrated through her convulsing body that she feared she wouldn't be able to part from him ever if she didn't let him go right now. A part of her certainly wanted them to stay like this forever, but she knew that this was wishful thinking. As wishful as it could get.

"Robert?" She stroked his tousled hair softly.

"Hmmm?" He murmured into her shoulder, where his head still lay while he caught his breath.

"Thank you, darling," Cora said and placed a kiss on his temple.

"You're welcome," he answered, but still didn't move.

"I'm afraid, you have to go and change now, as much as I'd like you to stay here with me," she reminded him. "Your mother will be here in half an hour."

"Oh God," Robert mewled, "I don't want to go. I hate leaving home not knowing when I'll be back."

"I know," Cora smiled. "I don't like that either, darling."

Robert finally raised his head to look into her eyes.

"You are my home and I hate being anywhere else. I hate being without you," he whispered. Cora was touched almost beyond words by his confession.

"And you are mine, my love, and you always will be," she replied and kissed him tenderly on the mouth, tears welling up in her eyes.

"But now you really have to go, you sentimental bastard, or we'll give your mother a heart attack," Cora tried to sound lightheartedly, before she would actually burst fully into tears.

"And we can't have that, of course," with a bright smile and a last peck on her lips, Robert dragged himself out of their bed and out of his wife's embrace.

As he stood in front of the full-length mirror in his dressing room, trying to brush his hair back into place again, a little wave of sadness washed over him again and he sighed. He really didn't want to go to New York for it was true what he had told her and he had meant it. Cora was his home. His bedrock and his salvation. But because of that, he would do anything for her. Which of course included her family. He would even visit them all in jail, if it ever came to that, which was unlikely, if it only meant, Cora would be by his side for the rest of his life. Perhaps he was a sentimental bastard by now, but he was a sentimental bastard in love.

"Papa," Mary knocked and peeked through the door which stood ajar, "can I ask a favour?"


End file.
